I’d just like to jump in alongside Dave’s series on criticizing the SBC and offer some niche thoughts, fresh and relevant, perhaps. I’d entitle this one: “How to express directly to trustees your criticism of their actions or to deliver to trustees your opinion about an unresolved matter presently before a board of trustees.”
Before proceeding, let me say this: What follows are in no way whatsoever a set of “rules” to follow for communicating with trustees. If you are a member of a Southern Baptist church, you can communicate with trustees any way you like. There are no rules. And it may be that you’re out to accomplish nothing more than getting something off of your chest. OK. Fire away.
But, if you are seeking to persuade trustees and accomplish some particular outcome that you think would be best, what follows are one trustee’s suggestions for how you can maximize the effectiveness of your communication.
DOs and DON’Ts for Writing Trustees |
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DO offer your opinion in terms related to the health of the institution. For any good trustee, the productivity of the institution for the kingdom of God will be the primary focus of work. Actually, even a BAD trustee will generally at least listen to arguments made for the health of the institution. Make your appeal in those terms. |
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GOODI read in Baptist Press that the IMB has had to reduce its missionary force, although the needs of world evangelization are as great as they have ever been. I want our mission board to succeed in her mission. Here’s one idea that might help:… |
LESS PERSUASIVEMy good friend is a missionary, and this is going to be bad for them… This is really going to look bad in the press… Our church contributed $x,xxx.xx last year, and we want _______ to happen… |
| DO NOT devote yourself to the making of threats. If it is a matter of any significance at all, just assume that people with a greater threat-capacity than you possess have already made threats on all sides of the question at hand. Consider that job well-done already and look for another basis for your communique. Threats are not very persuasive when aimed at trustees, by the way. | |
GOODSo long as the seminary is upholding our statement of faith and sending out God-called men and women into the work of the kingdom, I’m here to support her, but I would be so pleased if we could find a way to… |
LESS PERSUASIVEDo what I say or you’ll never get another dime from me… We’re going to the convention floor, and you’ll answer for what you’ve done… |
| DO NOT presume upon friendships or other relationships. If you are buddies with a trustee, don’t expect that to mean that you will be able to sway the way that trustee votes. If the matter is controversial at all, then your trustee-buddy probably has other buddies who hold the opposite opinion from yours. The trustee isn’t stupid and has already done the math to know that angry friends will be the result of this no matter how it unfolds. Might as well just do the right thing, as best as it can be determined. | |
GOODI certainly have opinions about what’s unfolding, and if you ever want or need to know them, just ask, but I’m contacting you today to let you know that you can count on my prayers and my friendship no matter what may be the outcome of all of this… |
LESS PERSUASIVEAs one friend to another, let me give you some unsolicited advice as to what you should do.… |
| DO offer any first-hand information you might possess about the issues at hand. This is probably not you. For most controversial matters unfolding in the SBC, this will not be you, unless you have achieved omnipresence. But if trustees are deliberating over a matter about which you yourself were present, having heard with your own ears and seen with your own eyes the unfolding of relevant events, then by all means, share that with trustees so that they might be informed better for the making of decisions. | |
GOODWhen I walked in, I was startled to find one of our employees in the intimate company of a woman who was not his wife.… |
LESS PERSUASIVELet me recount for you what my buddies and I have discussed in our Facebook group chat in which we hashed out all of this… |
| DO NOT necessarily expect a reply. The scale of communication made possible by the Internet will rapidly outstrip the communications capacity of most trustees. They have jobs and families. We go out of our way (as we should) to include people from smaller churches among our trustees, and pastors from such churches will have even less time available to dedicate to communications for their volunteer post serving as a trustee. Also, in some cases, they will have been forbidden to reply in any detail by institutional staff or legal counsel. | |
GOODI’m sure you’re swamped with emails right now. No reply is necessary, although if you’d like to follow up, I’m happy to correspond with you further.… |
LESS PERSUASIVEI emailed you yesterday and you haven’t had the decency to reply, which just goes to show how evil you are and that you can’t even come up any justification at all for your actions… |
| DO be who you’d want your church members to be if your congregation was embroiled in controversy, assuming that you are a pastor of a local church. When your church members show out, do they persuade you? If you want to be effective in communicating with trustees, try to be persuasive. | |
GOODI just want God’s will to be done. If it goes one way, yes, I’m going to be sad and disappointed. If it goes the other way, I’ll be elated. But that’s really not what matters in the long run, is it? What matters is that God would show you His will clearly, and I’m praying for that to happen… |
LESS PERSUASIVEI’ve been calling all of my friends, alerting them to the nefarious things you are doing, and we’re organizing and coming after you… |
| DO NOT assume that you even know what are the relevant issues that the trustees are deliberating. Consider that, while my inbox was filling up with people’s opinions about #MeToo, I (as I said on the floor of the SBC Annual Meeting) was wrestling with issues about the proper relationship between an institutional head and his board of trustees. Because of that mismatch, a lot of very carefully worded emails sent to me were actually not nearly as relevant to my deliberations as the senders thought they would be. The most helpful messages came from people who acknowledged on the front end that their knowledge of the situation was limited and who were measured in what they asserted and demanded. | |
GOODOnline and in talking with friends, I’ve heard that one of the significant factors you may be considering is…. If that is so, then you can take my opinion for what it is worth as the voice of one Southern Baptist who is praying for you…. I’m sure there is more to the story, but I hope that what I have written to you can make some positive contribution as you are seeking God’s will. |
LESS PERSUASIVEI spoke with a very influential Southern Baptist just the other day, and he told me what was really going on. So I know all about it, and I’m telling you that this is what you must do…. |
| DO sign your name. This summer I receive a number of emails from a self-professed “Southern Baptist insider” who anonymously informed me that I should fire Dr. Patterson forthwith. I read half of the first one. I trashed all of the rest of them unread immediately upon their arrival. The stakes are likely no higher for you as a correspondent than they are for the employees and trustees of the entity that you are discussing. Their names are going to be attached to this business, so you can probably stick your neck out and put your name on your messages. | |
You might think I’m lashing out at people who wrote me things that I didn’t like this year. Actually, a good bit of the “LESS PERSUASIVE” phraseology that I’ve critique in this post is modeled after MY OWN earlier attempts to make my opinions known to our boards. I still want to offer my opinions on the issues that confront Southern Baptists, and I think communication between individual Southern Baptists and the trustees who govern our entities can be an important and helpful part of that. But ALL of our attempts to communicate with trustees are made more difficult by the “less persuasive” attempts of some Southern Baptists. After a trustee has read ten of those, she or he comes to your well-written message perhaps with a negative mindset toward the entire enterprise. That doesn’t serve anyone. So, let us all endeavor to communicate in more helpful and persuasive ways when we offer opinion, direction, or even critique for those who serve us as trustees.
Finally, let me say that a lot of Southern Baptists actually handled this very well during my journeys through SBC controversy. To all of you on either side who did so, although you may not have received a reply directly from me, I thank you.
